William g



(NoMoael.) I W. G. HOWELL.

, NAIL. v A No, 271,983." Patented Fbqmss.

y .2? www l E lg 2?/ mmm UNITED STATES- ATENT OFFICE. t.

WILLIAM Gr. HOWELL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

NAIL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 271,983, dated February Application filed June 30, 1882. (No model.)

` To all whom it may concern:

i come worn and dulled.

Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. HOWELL, of the city and county of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have inventedan Improvement in the Manufacture of' Nails, of' which the following is a specification.

Heretot'ore nails, spikes, Sto., have been chiey made from .wrought-iron sheets rolled to the desired thickness and cut by the wellknown machineryin use by nail-makers. Nails have also been made from steel sheets, which steel nails have many points of advantage over the ordinary iron nail; but unless a special kind of steel adapted particularly to this manu-- facture is used the nails will not be oi" uniform quality and strength, and many will be found so brittle as to be substantially useless. A source of great difiiculty and expense inthe manufacture of steel nails is the liability of the cuttersof `the nail-cutting machine to be- This difficulty, great in all cases, although differing with various qualities of' steel, has proved almost prohibitoryto the manufacture of steel nails. I have discovered that by cutting nails from a sheet of' iron-covered steel-that is, of a sheet consisting of'a steel center with iron on both sides of it, and consolidated and combined together by rollinga nail may be made ot' uniform and very superior quality, and that qualities of steel may be used in such sheets which if used alone would be totally unfitted for the manufacture of nails and spikes. Such sheets, moreover, I have found do not dull the cutters as steel sheets do, nor to any greater extent than do the ordinary iron sheets in general use.

iron.

The nails and spikes made in this way have the strength of steel nails, 8vo., of the best quality, without the brittleness which has proved so great an objection to the use of steel for this purpose. They are easily clinched, and are very cheap, since the butts or ends of steel rails may be used in the manufacture ol" the combined sheets, less costly than either iron or steel sheets of 0rdiuarily good quality would be.

In the drawings,in which similar letters designate similar parts, Figure l is a perspective view oi' the nail-sheet ready for euttin g. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the nailsheet. Fig. 3 is a view of' the nail on the side where it is cut off' from the sheet; Fig. 4., a cross-section of' the nail.

A in each of the drawings is steel, and B is I am aware of' the patent granted to Rogers, No. 255,816, of 1882, and claim nothing therein set forth or claimed.

Having now described myinvention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

As a new article of manufacture, a nail, spike, 8vo., made of combined iron and steel, the steel being interposed between two surfaces of iron and Welded thereto and exposed upon opposite sides, substantially as set forth.

In testimony of which invention I hereunto set my hand.

WM. G. HOWELL. Witnesses:

n. s. CHILD, J`r., J AMES F. DONAHUE.

thus making such sheets 

